wwebradyfandomcom-20200214-history
Jim Powers
He arguably reached the peak of his career in the WWF when Powers, on March 11, 1987, along with fellow preliminary wrestler Paul Roma, formed a tag team called The Young Stallions. At first the team had no name, and the original pairing saw Roma and Powers teamed with Tito Santana in a six-man tag-team match against Don Muraco, Bob Orton, and Tiger Chung Lee on Wrestling Challenge. Surprisingly the team of Powers, Roma, and Santana were victorious, although it would be several months before they would win again. Two brutal losses to Demolition followed, as well as a defeat in eight-man action against The Heenan Family in June 1987 (a match that saw the return of Paul Orndorff to action after a five month layoff to such thunderous applause that he was quickly turned face. Powers and Roma finally gained their first televised victory in regular tag-team action in late July 1987 when they faced another preliminary team, Barry Horowitz & Steve Lombardi. The team was dominant and announcer Bobby Heenan was stunned when Roma unleashed an off the top rope sunset flip. Fresh off of their first win, Powers and Roma were scheduled to face The Hart Foundation on an August 8, 1987 episode of Superstars (taped August 4), they scored an upset disqualification victory over WWF Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation. The team seemingly received their name by accident when color commentator Bruno Sammartino referred to them once as "a couple of young stallions" thus naming the team. In October 1987 the Young Stallions became the official moniker of the Powers and Roma tag-team. A storyline playing off of their upset of the Hart Foundation was started as they "stole" the theme song "Crank It Up" from Jimmy Hart, who had intended to use it for his team. Later that month they faced The Hart Foundation in a rematch on Saturday Night's Main Event. The Stallions were narrowly defeated and now clearly had momentum. Along with The Killer Bees, they were also the only survivors in the elimination tag team match at the first annual Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 26, 1987. That momentum however seemed to end in January 1988 when the Stallions faced The Islanders in a best out of three falls match in the final bout of the inaugural Royal Rumble. Powers and Roma were defeated cleanly in two straight falls. The team was placed in featured matches on television and at house shows, but most times ended up on the losing end to teams such as The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, and The Fabulous Rougeaus. Following yet another loss, this time to Demolition on the March 19, 1989 episode of Wrestling Challenge, the team began arguing after the match. Their final televised match was a loss to The Powers of Pain in July 1989. Soon, they were split up off camera without an official announcement. Roma and Powers went their separate ways and both floundered on the undercard afterward, with Powers sustaining an injury that forced him out of action until March 1990. As Roma began teaming with Hercules to form the team of Power and Glory that spring, Powers began to occasionally partner with Jim Brunzell. Powers had an opportunity to face his former partner in August 1990 episode of Prime Time Wrestling when Power and Glory defeated Powers & Brunzell. For the next four years Powers was featured primarily as a singles wrestler. During this time, he most notably became the first WWF wrestler to lose to Ric Flair when the "Nature Boy" made his Federation debut on the September 30, 1991 episode of Prime Time Wrestling. While sustaining televised losses to top stars like Mr. Perfect, Ted DiBiase, The Undertaker he also defeated Al Perez and Steve Lombardi. Probably his peak push came in June 1992, when he returned after a several month hiatus from television to pin Lombardi and Bob Bradley. From this point on however he was unable to move up the card and finished up his main WWF run in April 1993 with a narrow loss on WWF Monday Night Raw to Jerry Lawler. Powers had one final WWF appearance in July 1994 when he went up against Jim Neidhart on Raw. He then departed, a full decade after first signing with the company. Category:Current Alumni